Why can't I pick up any repeaters in my area?

[SCPD]

I have been following here both the comments and questions. I am a bit perplex'd by Beamin's inability to key ANY repeaters in his area. His BaoFeng UV will also cover 440- has any thoughts been given to trying this band? There are plenty of UHF repeaters in Maryland.
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I have one of those a UV5 that I carry in my purse all the time, for both work and 'hamming:" I have no issues bring up repeaters in any metropolitan area- and that's using a "rubber duckie" antenna alone.
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Resorting to bamboo dipoles, beam antennas and such --that have produced NO results ? ( !) -- sets off a lot of my red flares.
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Beamin- a Suggestion:
....... see if you can't find some local help. Many years, and miles ago, when I lived in the Balto./DC area this radio club was very active.
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Baltimore Amateur Radio Club
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I'd seriously suggest you try contacting some local radio club- BARC (above) or others. Get together with some local hams that can put you on their/other's club repeater(s.)
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I'm fearing, Cowboy, that you're spinning your wheels in the sand.
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Again- best of luck to you.
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..............................CF

 

[wb6uqa]

Dipoles

It may be better to make two 18.5" ground and centerpieces of coax and make a half wave dipole. 18.5"is a quarter wave. Buy an antenna and LMR 400 coax put it up 65 ft. and work repeaters 100 miles away.

 

[baybum]

I live very close to Beamin and he should have no problems hitting at least 4 repeaters from the front porch, with the HT antenna. Clearly a set-up issue with the radio,
I have offered to do a simplex QSO with him, as soon at he comes back up here on the board.

Reports to follow.

 

[paulears]

I wonder if the antenna socket has been damaged and his antenna isn't making contact? I agree with CF - something is very wrong here.

 

[beamin]

Ok so finally I got my SWR meter out of storage. I found on 2m my radio was over 3:1 SWR but on 70 cm its 1.1 :1 on this antenna so rather then maess up a near perfect 70cm antenna I'm going to try this repeater. That could be why my radio wasn't going to pick it up.
So here is the specs for the new repeater:
Frequency: 442.2500+ plus
Tone: 107.2
Location: Baltimore
County: Baltimore
State: Maryland
Call: WA3KOK

Use: OPEN
Op Status: On-Air
Coverage:
Sponsor: Network Engineers Repeater Association (NERA)
Features: E-power.
Commands:
Nets:
Web links: NERA

Coordination: T-MARC

Last update: 2017-08-03

But there is not enough info here to set up. For instance I just figured out the top freq. on the beofung is going to be your tx and bottom is your receive. I don't know which is which for this repeater as I only have one frequency from the web site. The next thing I need to figure out is how to set up the tone. Then what the two frequencies are and what goes on top and bottom of display. I also noticed the channels don't go to 99. They go to sixty or some number so when I put in 99 it wasn't accepting it. I realized alot of my frustration is that I could never see those little numbers on the right of the screen but now I know they are there. Thank you for your patience doing this stuff with basically my eyes closed is no easy task.

So your hunches were right in that the SWR was so bad I wasn't etting out a signal.

 

[KE5MC]

The listed frequency is the one the repeater transmits on and the one you receive on.

442.2500+ plus is telling you the split is up for you to transmit on. UHF split is usually 5.00 MHz, but can vary by geography.

Mike

 

[beamin]

I live very close to Beamin and he should have no problems hitting at least 4 repeaters from the front porch, with the HT antenna. Clearly a set-up issue with the radio,
I have offered to do a simplex QSO with him, as soon at he comes back up here on the board.

Reports to follow.

I just ordered a outdoor stellar lab FM yagi antenna and I will be making it into a 2 meter antenna on a bamboo shoot pole 30-60 ft high.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp7nDSqqkf0
This is the build I'm following. The only issue might be I have rg6 and not sure if I have rg59. So if I don't have rg59 I'm not sure how to make the balun as described in the video or rather what its lengths maybe. Balun issues aside can 50 ohm rg6 coax feedline be used in place of 75ohm rg59 if your balun is made from rg59? I might have a short length of rg59 but certainly not enough to run outdoors up the mast and into the house. Without an antenna analysier that could present a problem. Is there a way to figure that out using the number off the side of the coax? That antenna software is beyond me as I can't see the font it uses. I tried another program but have no way of zooming into the text. Who knew that a hobby that involves your ears required so much eye sight.

I'll be checking this board(and PMs) more to see if we can do a simplex.

Once again thanks Icouldn't do any of this without the help of others on the forum.

 

[nd5y]

For instance I just figured out the top freq. on the beofung is going to be your tx and bottom is your receive.

I don't know where you got that information from but it's wrong.

 

[cmdrwill]

Originally Posted by beamin:
" For instance I just figured out the top freq. on the beofung is going to be your tx and bottom is your receive. "

I don't know where you got that information from but it's wrong.

NOT wrong, 442.2500+ plus, beamin's radio would Transmit on 447.250 and Receive on 442.250.

 

[KK4JUG]

When you key the transmitter, doesn't the transmit frequency replace the receive frequency on the display during the transmission?

 

[hill]

Going forward wouldn't use rg-59. Would use either lmr-400 or rg-213 for that long a run on VHF, since too much loss on rg-59 on VHF.

 

[nd5y]

When you key the transmitter, doesn't the transmit frequency replace the receive frequency on the display during the transmission?

Yes, and it doesn't make any difference if you are using the upper or lower display.

 

[baybum]

Beamin...doesn't that radio come with a rubber duck antenna? Can we try that on 2 meters?

 

[mm]

I suspect that your transmit frequency has been set wrong all along on your initial 2 meter attempts and as coyote suggest try and get outside help before building a beam antenna as this will only add more frustration especially if you are legally blind.

Even if your VSWR is 3:1 you still should be able to access repeaters within 10 miles with the stock antenna.

Measuring the stock rubber VHF duck antennas VSWR while directly attached to any VSWR meter will give incorrect data so don't assume that the stock antenna is faulty.


Additionally did everyone miss these steps below that he posted on page 2 of this thread?

In particular for the 147.030 Repeater that you tried programming, I don't know any repeaters that use a 640KHz transmit offset.

i'd bet that all along your Input (tx) frequency has been set wrong on all of the repeaters you have tried.

If you really tried to access the 147.030 repeater with the transmit frequency set to 147.670MHz then I suspect this is the issue as the correct transmit frequency should be 147.630 MHz.

You posted the following information for the 2 meter repeater you tried to hit:

6. Store RX frequency into channel
147.030 [Menu] 2 7 [Menu] 9 9 [Menu]

7. Store TX frequency into channel
147.670 [Menu] [Menu] [Exit]



Additionally you posted this>>. 146.565- RX 144.600 TX PL Tone looks like none used.

Stay away from this 146.565 listing until you get a standard coordinated + or -600 kHz offset repeater working as this 146.565 listing appears to be a simplex IRLP or echolink simplex system with an incorrect tx offset listed possible to throw people off from using a private system.

146.565 is not a standard repeater input or output frequency and it shouldn't have an offset transmit frequency listed.


It's too bad that their isn't a method to use Chirp software remotely over the internet and have someone program his radio remotely.

 

[beamin]

A quick reply still reading above posts:

I bought this and have it hooked to my SDR and I am picking things up on 147.135 on AM sounds kind of official not sure what it it is. The voices are muffled and tuning without a mouse in SDRuno sucks to say the least.

So I am going to do the conversion on this antenna as per the dave castler you tube video.
Stellar Labs (30-2460) Outdoor FM Antenna ( MCM welcome to Newark | Newark element14... )

 

[hill]

147.135 should be FM and need to change the mode to it if you want to receive it.

 

[beamin]

I suspect that your transmit frequency has been set wrong all along on your initial 2 meter attempts and as coyote suggest try and get outside help before building a beam antenna as this will only add more frustration especially if you are legally blind.

Even if your VSWR is 3:1 you still should be able to access repeaters within 10 miles with the stock antenna.

Measuring the stock rubber VHF duck antennas VSWR while directly attached to any VSWR meter will give incorrect data so don't assume that the stock antenna is faulty.


Additionally did everyone miss these steps below that he posted on page 2 of this thread?

In particular for the 147.030 Repeater that you tried programming, I don't know any repeaters that use a 640KHz transmit offset.

i'd bet that all along your Input (tx) frequency has been set wrong on all of the repeaters you have tried.

If you really tried to access the 147.030 repeater with the transmit frequency set to 147.670MHz then I suspect this is the issue as the correct transmit frequency should be 147.630 MHz.

You posted the following information for the 2 meter repeater you tried to hit:

6. Store RX frequency into channel
147.030 [Menu] 2 7 [Menu] 9 9 [Menu]

7. Store TX frequency into channel
147.670 [Menu] [Menu] [Exit]



Additionally you posted this>>. 146.565- RX 144.600 TX PL Tone looks like none used.

Stay away from this 146.565 listing until you get a standard coordinated + or -600 kHz offset repeater working as this 146.565 listing appears to be a simplex IRLP or echolink simplex system with an incorrect tx offset listed possible to throw people off from using a private system.

146.565 is not a standard repeater input or output frequency and it shouldn't have an offset transmit frequency listed.


It's too bad that their isn't a method to use Chirp software remotely over the internet and have someone program his radio remotely.

Wat about tightVNC? or a team viewer? Can individuals use that like those indian scammer do that work in Applesofts technical support department? Last one that called me told me they were Bill Gates; that was so nice of the CEO to fix non existent problem found in he event log of the computer and run a batch file in red writing (red ='s viruses).




So can any one do this: Pick a repeater that works close to ellicott city MD 21043 and find two repeaters that you use: One in 2m that will work with stock rubber antenna and one 440MHZ 70 cm freq repeater that will work with my high gain antenna? I know its a pain but it will save me 10's of attempts. This post probably took me 20 minutes to type out and spell check. Don't ever go blind it sucks.

I think if I have the steps written out with the actual frequencies and codes specifically to my local repeater to put in: I can see well enough to do that. This forum is good visually because its text only and I can use a srceen magnifier. I know its a pain in the *** to type out but but that would go along way. I have a hard time trying to read the correct frequencies off one site then switch as the radio usually times out as I adjust my screen resolution.
IE
1. press 147.030
2.Hit menu
3. press menu
4.press 670
5.press menu
etc etc

I think the radio is timing out before I can read what the screen says: I am going too slow for it. I still don't really know how to program using generic directions but if I know an exact key sequence it should work.

Also why won't the SWR meter work with my stock rubber antenna? Is this true of all little dual band antennas?

Thanks again.

 

[cmdrwill]

7. Store TX frequency into channel
147.670 [Menu] [Menu] [Exit]

Problem, you need .600 off set, so enter 147.630 as the radio's Transmit frequency.....

The repeater is transmitting on 147.030 and 147.030 IS your radios Receive frequency.
The repeater is receiving on 147.630 and 147.630 IS your radio's TX frequency.

Most SWR meters can not 'read' SWR on portable, 'rubber duck' antennas.
Not all so called dual band antennas are really dual band per se. The 'rubber duck antenna on most Baofeng radios ARE a UHF antenna. So you get poor performance on VHF, 2 meteres.

 

[paulears]

The VSWR of an antenna on a portable radio depends on the ground plane. This is a tiny bit of the radio, plus you and your body as you hold it. If you try to use a VSWR meter, you change the test conditions. The antenna is no longer attached to the ground plane, so if you ran a short cable to the meter, and plugged the antenna into that, then it's using a totally different ground plane setup. So you can measure the VSWR of the antenna, it's just that the result is a bit meaningless. With portables, a field strength test is more realistic for comparison. You place the transmitter on a mark, you place a receiver on a mark and measure how strong the signal is. Swap the antenna and repeat, and you can compare the two. You need variable attenuators to get the signal down to something manageable, but you can produce a dB better or worse than figure.

 

[jonwienke]

If you use a SDR as the test receiver, you can get a pretty accurate comparison of the relative performance of two or more antennas. You'll be able to see fractional dB signal differences vs the multi-dB steps between the segments of most radios' signal strength displays.